Vail Resorts Inc. reported certain ski season metrics for the comparative periods from the beginning of the ski season through January 6, 2019, and for the prior year period through January 7, 2018. The reported ski season metrics are for our North American mountain resorts, and the metrics exclude results from Perisher and our urban ski areas in both periods. The data mentioned in this release is interim period data and is subject to fiscal quarter end review and adjustments.
- Season-to-date total lift ticket revenue at the company’s North American mountain resorts, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue for each applicable period, was up 12.2 percent compared to the prior year season-to-date period.
- Season-to-date ski school revenue was up 9.5 percent and dining revenue was up 14.8 percent compared to the prior year season-to-date period. Retail/rental revenue for North American resort store locations was up 12.0 percent compared to the prior year season-to-date period.
- Season-to-date total skier visits for the company’s North American mountain resorts were up 16.9 percent compared to the prior year season-to-date period.
Commenting on the ski season to date, Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer said, “It is great to see the growth across our business this season as we deliver excellent guest service at our resorts. Improved conditions across our western U.S. resorts helped drive a strong rebound in visitation and spending, particularly during the key holiday weeks. However, despite the good conditions, our destination guest visitation was much lower than anticipated in the pre-holiday period, particularly December 1st through December 21st. We believe this was driven by destination guests’ concerns from two prior years of poor pre-holiday conditions at our U.S. resorts and we did not see the pickup in short-term bookings we had expected. Results over the holidays were in line with our expectations across our resorts except at Whistler Blackcomb and our Tahoe resorts which had results below our expectations primarily driven by increased weather variability at those resorts over the holidays and lower than expected destination and international visitation.”
Katz continued, “Primarily as a result of missing our expectations in the pre-holiday period, we now expect full year Resort Reported EBITDA guidance to be slightly below the low end of the guidance range we issued on September 28, 2018. Our guidance assumes normal conditions at our resorts, a stable economic environment and the currency rates in place when the guidance was originally issued.”
Basis of Presentation
The reported ski season metrics include growth for season pass revenue based on estimated fiscal 2019 North American season pass sales compared to fiscal 2018 North American season pass sales, and the metrics are adjusted as if Steven Pass and Triple Peaks, LLC were owned in both periods and adjusted to eliminate the impact of foreign currency by applying current period exchange rates to the prior period for Whistler Blackcomb’s results.
Vail Resorts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is the leading global mountain resort operator. The company’s subsidiaries operate 15 world-class mountain resorts and three urban ski areas, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte in Colorado; Park City in Utah; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada; Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada; Stowe and Okemo in Vermont; Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire; Stevens Pass in Washington; Perisher in New South Wales, Australia; Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin; Afton Alps in Minnesota and Mt. Brighton in Michigan. Vail Resorts owns and/or manages a collection of casually elegant hotels under the RockResorts brand, as well as the Grand Teton Lodge company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Vail Resorts Development company is the real estate planning and development subsidiary of Vail Resorts Inc.
